OSCAR ATE MY MUFFIN

At Long Last, Say Hello to...

Big news, dear readers! After many years of requests for prints and artwork from (or just in the general style of) this website, Oscar and I have finally collected our ducklings and stocked the virtual shelves of a proper online print shop! Though it be small, it contains a mighty handful of artworks that I'm very proud of: all prints are meticulously produced using archival quality inks and papers, and each one is hand-signed.

Making this shop debut extra special is the inclusion of a brand new, limited edition, hand-printed POSTER! My first screen-print - and boy is it a gem...


We know it's a crazed time of year, but if you've been following the Old Man Beast and I for this long, you already know you'll like what you see - so come visit! And if you've got a dog lover on your "nice list" this year, look no further for a great gift! All prints ship flat, so they're ready for framing or display.


Here's hoping you enjoy studio/animaux as much as we enjoyed bringing it to life... Be merry out there, dear ones, and happy holidaying!

~ N-zed & O-Town

Blanketing Nemo: in Praise of Obtrack

Thanks to winter storm Nemo, over 24" of pretty glorious fresh powder fell on Boston Friday night. It was a proper blizzard, with clapbord-rattling wind and impressive drifts. The city, erring on the side of prevention, shut down public transit and enforced a 24-hour driving ban - effectively creating a blustery ghost town, with only the occassional public works pick-up sloppily shoving through the accumulation. By morning, the main streets had been reasonably maintained, but just about everything else (parked cars, sidewalks, front yards, back decks and garden gnomes) was positively burried. Some sidestreets had yet to see any kind of plow. For this Vermonter, the morning brought with it a wonderland.

Oscar quite obviously dissagreed with my enthusiasm.
But the Beast was a sweet-faced trooper and trotted along with his pack as we skiied our way through the kingdom, admiring the magnificence of the occassion.


For all his weight and serious-ness, Oscar is not a terrible toughie. Maybe I had something to do with that, though I get a sense the Ridgeback breed is rife with divas. On top of an embarassing sensitivity to wet feet, and disgust at any amount of precipitation blowing into his eyes, the Beast is not well insulated against wind and freezing temps by his tight, short coat; if he's not keeping up a vigorous pace, he gets cold, fast. Fair enough, my boy, fair enough. For this reason, we've got a couple coats in rotation - they don't make a sub-zero day a sauna, but they extend his tolerance long enough for a decent walk.

And not a winter walk goes by that he doesn't get a compliment on his wardrobe...


Years ago I discovered Swedish canine coat company, Obtrack - it was love at first sight of their smart, red-on-black tailoring, and I've been a devotee ever since. Full disclosure - these coats are expensive, and a rip or tear will prompt an appearance by your sewing kit before you reach for your credit card to order a replacement. In my humble opinion, they are also worth every penny. For starters: they fit like nothing else - even with shoulder-drawstring panels, velcro collar tabs, and an adjustable buckle over the back to secure the belly panel, the coats come in 13 sizes! meaning a much more exacting fit for your pup than traditional S, M, L. Also: they're DEAD SEXY. AND: they put up to wear - after 5 years of trail runs, Northeast winters, run-ins with barbed wire fences and wrestling with honest to goodness "animals", Oscar's Skrylle was only just this season replaced. His Rogle will need updating in another year or two, but it's still the snuggly go-to when the Beast spends a chilly day in the studio with me.

I sing Obtrack's praises whenever possible, though I have yet to see a SINGLE dog in person wearing one, or even a distributer (I ordered Oscar's coats direct from the Obtrack online shop). I assume they are more common across Europe... guess for now the brand is just our little not-so-closely-kept secret (Obtack, if you're reading this post - you've found your next US sales rep).

And with Valentine's Day just around the corner, we thought a little blatant brand-love might be apropos: 

O-Town Reviews: Sojos 'Good Dog' Treats

At long last - and just in time for the gifting season - Oscar's first product review is ready for prime time!

As a proud new member of the inubar5, Oscar's treat-tasting, canine coat-wearing, plush toy-thrashing talents will now be put to professional use - as bona fide product testing for the snazzy, design-centric, online dog boutique, inubar. Good boy that he is, the Beast waited most patiently for the postman to finally deliver our first surprise box of sample goodies... there was still growling at the front door when said package arrived (the postman IS still the postman - bearing gifts or not), but what joy of joys when we cracked open the corrugated cube to reveal... one of O-Town's FAVORITE nibbles of all time...

Oscar may be an X-LG when it comes to dog-sizing, but (despite some people's misguided impression that treat size should correlate directly with girth) the smaller the treat for him, the BETTER. If you're familiar with marker training (same camp as clicker training) you know the value of lots and lots and lots... AND LOTS... of consistent "YESES", aka "marks", paired directly with rewards (in most cases, rewards = food). If I were handing out jumbo Milkbones for every "YES", I'd have a WHALE for a companion (and much as Oscar might enjoy being a whale, that body type just ain't healthy for a dog). Since Oscar was raised on boatloads of rewards-based marker training, the Holy Grail of treats, in my book, is a nibble-sized, uber-flavorful, wholesome-ingredient-rich, virtual crumb of a cookie - prefereably dry and non-greasy (so when they inevitably escape into a coat pocket, things don't get gross). Suffice to say, the day I discovered Sojo's "Good Dog" treats was a very, very good day.


These teensy little bones are positively the perfect size for training-treats; they come in a range of what I consider "delicious" flavors (blueberry cobler, pb & jelly, and - featured here - apple dumpling); and they are neat as can be in the handling department. Oscar most definitely agrees with me on this. And since these treats are ever so dainty, even after a full session of honing quality party tricks like "say you're sorry" and "stick em up", he runs nary the risk of becomming another embarrassing tubby puppy statistic...